The Supreme Court will decide the fate of abortion pill mifepristone

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday said it will review a lower court decision that would make mifepristone, the commonly used abortion pill, less accessible.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

First to the Supreme Court, which entered the abortion debate again today. It agreed to review a lower court decision that would make the commonly used abortion pill mifepristone less accessible. A Supreme Court decision on this case, which would come next year, could not only affect the way the FDA does its job, but also have a major impact on the presidential election. NPR politics correspondent Danielle Kurtzleben and pharmaceuticals correspondent Sydney Lupkin are here to explain what is at stake. Good to have you both with us.

SYDNEY LUPKIN, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.

DANIELLE KURTZLEBEN, BYLINE: Hi.

SHAPIRO: Danielle, let’s start with you. Tell us about the case the Supreme Court’s going to hear.

KURTZLEBEN: Sure. So this case is about the availability of mifepristone, which is one of two drugs used in medication abortions. In this case, an antiabortion rights group called the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine brought a suit against the FDA, in part arguing against regulations on mifepristone that have been loosened over time. They don’t think it should have been loosened. Starting in 2016, there were a number of changes. For example, the FDA made prescriptions available via telemedicine and made it possible to send the pills to patients through the mail. Now, in this case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals said those regulations shouldn’t have been loosened. They agreed with the plaintiffs. They said that the drug shouldn’t be so widely available.

Now, had the Supreme Court not decided today to take this up, that would mean those tighter curbs on the drug would stand. But since they will take this up, mifepristone will remain available for now, in its current form. But a Supreme Court ruling, when it comes, could mean tighter restrictions on the…